The Animal Within Me
by Straightedge127
Summary: The Spirit of the Tiger has awaken and is slowly taking it's course through Manny's veigns. Can he do anything to keep himself under control, or will he be consumed by the animal within and become a full blown, wild animal? Can his family do anything to help him? Read to find out.


_**El Tigre: The Animal Within Me**_

**Chapter 1:**"

You'll never take me alive, man." Cried El Oso as he ran as fast as he could from the great and legendary White Pantera with two large bags of money. But the off thing to him was, Pantera was not running as fast as he usually did. Actually, he's been running the same pace as him for the past five minutes. "Are your shoes going AWOL or are you just distracting me? You'll never catch me at this rate."

"Haha, mi amigo. That is because, I am not trying to." Pantera yelled.

"Huh?" Oso mumbled until he suddenly found himself stumbling onto the hard pavement, dropping the money on impact. "Ahh, darn it. What the heck was that, man?" He turned onto his back to look for the cause of his fall and brought his attention to a chain. But it wasn't just any chain. It was a chain he became quite familiar with over the years. He looked to the left and saw a hand gripping onto a wall across the street.

It then let go of the wall and quickly attached itself back onto the arm of it's most rightful owner. The boy dressed in a brown mask with white tufts, a scar on his left eye and gloves with large, metal claws, a tiger tail on his back and a belt with his signature 'T' labeled on it. The boy who over the years has been labeled neither hero, nor villain. The boy to soon inherit the true experience of the Rivera name. Manny Rivera aka...

"El Tigre." Oso gasped. Manny adjusted his wrist and approached him.

"Dude, would it kill you to stop robbing the same bank every time you get out of jail?" Manny groaned crossing his arms.

"I can't help it, man. They got so many Benjamins. The Benjamins!" Oso replied, as his eyes formed into dollar signs. "And the smell. Don't even get me started on the smell." He was suddenly interrupted when Pantera grabbed his fur and lifted him up.

"But today, the only thing you'll be smelling, is the aroma of a steel prison cell." He grinned and literally punched Oso into a prison truck. Oso rose up andl gripped onto the bars of the truck as it drove away into the moonlight.

"Excellent work today, Mijo. You've really made me proud today." Rodolfo commented to his 15 year old son.

"Yeah, thanks, Papi." Manny said glumly.

"Is something wrong, my son?"

"Dad, we've been fighting villains all night. We've practically put every bad guy behind bars. Not only that, but my belt is starting to go loco." Manny complained looking at his belt, which practically had sparks flying out of it. "Can we go home now? I have school tomorrow." Rodolfo sighed and said:

"You are right, Manny. I guess it is time to get some rest. You look a little tired and unsteady anyway. Let us go home." And with that, they both headed back home where they found Jorge Rivera aka Grandpapi, already passed out on the coach.

After taking a long, relaxing shower, Manny headed into his bedroom and put on his orange and black boxers, his belt and his usual yellow and orange striped t-shirt. He didn't waste any time in hopping right into bed and falling fast to sleep, relaxing his tired, sore body. He thought he really needed this rest. He had fighting super-villains all day and every one that he and Rodolfo defeated, just lead from one crime to the next. It was such a stressful day that he was practically begging to get some sleep.

A smile rose onto his face as he snored peacefully. Little did he know, his belt had more sparks flying out of it and for some reason, it started glowing a dim, light green.

* * *

><p><em>(The Next Morning) <em>

Manny woke up groggily, his eyes burning red and his body feeling even more sore than ever. His body had a warm and intense feeling all over him. Those fights couldn't have worn him out that bad. He groaned as he sat up from his bed which for some reason, felt very painful but he managed to regain a good amount of strength.

He tiredly walked into his bathroom and when he looked into his mirror:

"What the?!" He exclaimed as he stared into a pair of glowing green tiger eyes-which he usually didn't see unless he was in El Tigre form. He slowly lifted his hands towards his face but then looked down at the belt buckle. It looked completely normal, but he knew _something _had to be causing his eyes to glow. Not to mention the extreme body heat. He tapped the buckle twice to make sure it wasn't going haywire on him and all that came out was a tiny spark. He looked back at the mirror and his eyes were still glowing.

"...Maybe I should take a break from being El Tigre for a while." He said. It was possibly the only solution in turning his eyes and body back to normal. After all, he was up all night apprehending criminals. But he couldn't let his Papi or Grandpapi see him like this. Especially without his El Tigre outfit. And most definitely, his mother. God knows she would probably have more than an asthma attack. He quickly rushed out of the bathroom and put his clothes on.

He could suddenly smell the breakfast coming from downstairs and it already became a conclusion that his mother, Maria was already awake. She was still the Head Librarian at his school after all. He really needed to be stealthy at this point. He slowly crept down the stairs and tip-toed through the hallway and luckily, he made it past the kitchen until:

"Manny?" His mother called, making his eyes grow wide.

"...Yeah, Mom?" Manny replied nervously.

"Is everything all right? Do you need a ride to school?"

"No thanks Mom, I'll walk." He said as he continued his way towards the door.

"Don't you want to eat breakfast first? It's your favorite."

"No thanks, I'm not hungry, I gotta go. See you at school, love you, bye." Manny said and rushing out the door, leaving Maria very confused.

Manny literally dashed his way to school and made it just in the nick of time, despite the soreness in his body. Ever since he and his best friend, Frida Suarez, were put on a curfew to get to school on time, they both have been doing everything they could to get to school on time. That also included waking up early every morning. He went to his locker and leaned against the door panting heavily but quietly. He took a peak to make sure he was in the clear and then opened his locker and looked in the mirror. Unfortunately for him, his eyes were still glowing green. What was going on with him? Was it a developing effect of the El Tigre curse or could it be that being El Tigre all night was starting to make him turn into a real life wild animal?

Of course Manny knew that there would be certain side-effects to wearing the El Tigre belt but he never knew that one of them would involve his eyes glowing for a long period of time. If this was going to last all day, he probably wouldn't be sure what to do in order to cure it.

"Hey, Manny." A familiar voice greeted him as he felt something poke him on the shoulder. His eyes went wide and he swiftly turned around with a gasp as he was greeted by his blue-haired, tomboy best friend Frida. Her smile then turned into awe when she noticed the color of his eyes were different. "Whoa, dude, what's up with your eyes?"

"My eyes? What, nothing, really, why do you ask?" Manny asked hysterically with a grin and a few drops of sweat.

"Uh, because they're glowing? Like literally? I thought they only did that when you're El Tigre?"

"Really? They're glowing? I haven't noticed." His response received a raised eyebrow from her, causing him to sigh. "Look, I don't know. I woke up this morning and I found them this way. Plus, my body is sore and I'm hot. I think my belt must be going loco or something. Must be from fighting bad guys with Dad all night."

Frida examined his belt and gave it a poke, causing a few tiny sparks to fly out.

"Hmm, well have you told anyone yet?" Frida asked.

"No. If I tell Dad, he'll probably think the belt is broken and take the belt away from me. If I tell Grandpapi, he'll probably think I'm becoming evil and give me another long, boring lecture on how this is a good thing and use it to commit a bunch of crimes. And Mom...well you can already guess that one for yourself."

"Riiight...well, have you tried spinning it the other way?"

Manny spun the buckle the other way and unfortunately, he completely felt the same. He looked back up and shrugged his shoulders.

"I think being El Tigre all night is messing with the belt. I should probably give it some rest for a while. Three days at best."

"What?! But dude, you can't go that long without being El Tigre. What if a bad guy breaks out of jail again and your dad isn't around? He is always out on business after all. And what about all that cool, extreme, adrenaline pumping stuff we do all the time? El Tigre is like, the daredevil inside you and we need that daredevil to do that awesome stuff." Frida pleaded.

"Frida, I really don't think any bad guys are gonna be much of an issue for a while. Me and Dad practically rounded up every bad guy in town...well everyone except for Grandpapi, but he really doesn't count at this point." Manny replied. "But I will admit, I do like doing awesome stuff. I guess I could-"

_**"BOOM!"**_

There was a sudden explosion from outside and then a series of police sirens which sounded not too far from the school.

"Aye caramba! Are you kidding me? Who starts a robbery in the morning?!" Manny complained in frustration. "I thought we gathered up all the bad guys last night?"

"It's a spicy cesspool of crime and villainy, dude. Go figure." Frida said.

"Ugh, who is it this time?" Manny said before he, Frida and a couple other students ran outside to see what was going on. There was a large cloud of smoke a few meters ahead and a group of police cars that surrounded the bank. Then there was a burst of smoke that shot into the sky and a familiar evil laugh could be heard.

Manny's tiger eyes gave him the advantage to see further enough to get a closer look at the flying culprit. The figure was wearing a black sombrero, a giant black robotic suit with long and pointy arms and a red mask and a skeleton in the middle. Facial features include red eyes, brown hair, and a mustache. And he was carrying two large bags of money.

"Oh, great...that guy." Manny mumbled. "I thought he moved to another city far away from here."

"Hahaha. It is I, Senor Siniestro. At last, I have returned to Miracle City and there is no possible way you can catch me now." He laughed with a terrible Texan accent. A few months after his last fight with Manny, Siniestro or, Sergio in real life, had moved to another town and nobody had seen or heard from him since then. And in retrospect, no one really cared. Manny just stood there, watching which caught Frida's attention.

"Uh, Manny. Aren't you going to go after him?"

"Let my dad handle it. I've had enough crime fighting for one day." Manny replied, almost walking away until his cell phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and pressed talk. "Hello?"

_"Hola, Mijo."_ Rodolfo said on the other line.

"Dad? What's up?"

_"I just want you to know that I've gone on another business trip so I won't be able to do any crime-fighting 'til I get back. Be a good boy and take care of any criminal activity while I'm gone, okay? And don't go on any heists with your grandfather. Love you, see you when I come home." _

Manny heard the click on the other line and stared blankly at the wall. Then he looked at Frida, who was giving him a cocky grin.

"*Sigh* Fine. But this is the last time I'm covering for dad." Manny twirled the buckle and for some reason, nothing happened except for a couple more sparks to fly out. "What the?" Manny twirled it again, receiving the same result. "¿Qué problema hay con este estúpido trozo de-"

Suddenly, Manny's body was engulfed in green flames until he was turned into El Tigre. Confused, Manny glared at the belt until he noticed it was glowing a bright green aura around it.

"Uh, dude, what's up with your belt?" Frida asked, confused as well.

"I told you, something is making it-" Manny was cut off, when his eyes went wide and his body went stiff. His head and right eye started to twitch uncontrollably, which then shifted into a series of hysterical shaking.

"Manny?" Frida called. Instead of an answer, she was received with some sort of weird gibberish until Manny fell onto his hands and his head was face-down. Frida stared at him almost in shock. There was so much going on at this point. First, Manny's eyes are glowing, then his belt, and now he's acting completely crazy. Then she started to hear him growling...literally, growling like a wild animal.

His head suddenly shot up, revealing an angry pair of green eyes and...sharp teeth. From Manny's point of view, all he could see was red and black, as if he really was some sort of wild animal. He brought his attention to Frida and the other students that looked at him.

"Dude, are you feeling okay?" Frida asked before Manny brought his attention to Siniestro, targeting him as if he was his next meal. Manny charged at him on all fours at an unbelievable speed. This shocked almost the entire crowd of students.

Manny ran as fast as he could until he came to a stop and pounced onto a wall and climbed his way up to the roof. When he reached the top, he glared at Siniestro and roared a mighty roar. Senor Siniestro heard the roar and looked down and saw his biggest rival, whom he hadn't seen in years.

"El Tigre. Now this just keeps getting better and better." He said with an evil grin. He descended down towards him but stayed mid-flight as the two rivals glared eye-to-eye. "So, we meet again eh, Tigre. How long has it been 2-3 years?"

Manny didn't answer, but continued to growl at his 'prey'.

"Not talkin' eh? Fine! But let's not forget that you're the one that stole my Frida from me."

"Never was yours and never will be, Geek!" Frida yelled, disgusted.

"Maybe not now but soon. Anyway, I've waited a long time to get my hands on you and so, I've made a few upgrades over the years. Bandidos, destroy him!"

Four bulky robot bandidos came from out of nowhere and surrounded Manny, but he showed nothing but anger towards them. But it turned out, it wasn't just the bulkiness of the robots that was different, but also, they were equipped missile launchers on their shoulders and pistols. Manny stood on both legs and drew his metal claws.

An evil chuckle sounded out from Siniestro as he witnessed his robots make their attack...which only lasted a couple seconds. The sound of roaring and metal being destroyed while Siniestro covered his face to avoid being hit by any flying debris. He uncovered his face and his robots were literally massacred into bits and pieces of junk.

"Ya idiots! Even with all the upgrades that I spent _millions _to get for you, and you still can't even shoot him without getting ripped to shreds?!" Siniestro said with anger. "Forget it. I will take care of you myself!"

He landed on the rooftop, while El Tigre glared at him with rage. The seconds that followed, Manny and Siniestro found each other in a standoff, where Manny drew his claws again and Siniestro drew his fingers, which were also guns and a slot opened on his shoulders, revealing twelve rounds of missiles. An evil grin rose upon Sergio's face, while an angry, ferocious, sharp tooth, frown grew on Manny's. Without warning, Siniestro raised his hands and bullets started unloading towards Manny at the speed of a machine gun. Manny charged his opponent at the same unbelievable speed but also, doing everything he could to avoid getting hit by bullets.

"Frida?" Maria called. "Are you okay? I heard the explosion. Where's Manny?"

"He's...up there." Frida said, pointing to the building where Manny was. It didn't take long for Maria to enter another series of rapid panting. To this day, it still stresses her out when it comes to Manny getting involved in situations such as this. For some reason, it's hard for her to accept the fact that Manny isn't a little boy anymore.

"How can you move that fast?" Siniestro yelled firing another missile. Manny was moving so fast that it was hard for him to get a steady aim for him. He's already wasted half of his ammunition.

Manny pounced over the incoming missile and tackled Siniestro off the roof.

"Get off o' me ya sass a frasin'-AAHH!" Siniestro shouted until Manny started furiously roaring and clawing him in every possible way. It wasn't long before Siniestro landed on his back, causing a cloud of dirt to fly up. Manny back flipped off of him and landed in front of him as Siniestro stood back on his feet with four scratches on his face and a part of his mask torn off. He growled at Manny and aimed his fingers at him and continued unloading his machine gun bullets. Manny jumped onto the police car behind him and then onto the wall.

Maria could do nothing but observe her son in action but she couldn't help feel something was off. Manny was moving a lot faster, he was jumping higher and also, he seemed more aggressive than ever. Something about it made him seem unnatural but in a way, it seemed familiar for some reason. It wasn't until Manny jumped off the wall when she noticed the green aura around his belt buckle. It was then that she knew what seemed to be happening to her son. She dreaded this day would ever come.

Siniestro did his absolute best to shoot Manny but he was too fast. He just ended up shooting everything else around them when suddenly:

_**"CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!"**_Siniestro's robotic suit ran out of ammunition. "Oh dag nabbit." A look of fear arose as he glanced back at Manny, who growled once more and his claws opened wide, readying to rip him to shreds.

El Tigre charged at him and made a series of cuts and slashes to Siniestro's body armor, completely ignoring the pleas and cries for him to stop until,

_**"CLANG, PLOP, PTANG!" **_Siniestro's armor fell completely apart, piece by piece, revealing a poor, helpless Sergio with a face full of fear. Manny pounced him onto the ground and raised a claw. Sergio screamed in complete fear but nobody didn't seem to help him, nor did they want to. But Manny suddenly stopped as his eyes went wide and his head started shaking again. He suddenly felt his vision return to normal and his teeth were back to normal human teeth.

A look of confusion met him as he looked down at the frightened, 13 year old, chubby vigilante, not even noticing that his claw was still held up.

"I give. I give! Take me to jail! Kick me out of the country! ANYTHING! Just please don't kill me." Sergio pleaded in fear.

"Uh...what?" Manny mumbled, a lot more confused.

"Dude." Frida called, which was received with a glance. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Uh...I don't...what's going on now?"

"You don't remember? You were just acting like a wild animal and you practically obliterated Siniestro and his goons. You were growling, your teeth were sharp, and you were fast...like really fast. It was just...so...AWESOME!" Frida explained, stoked about the situation. "I mean, you should've seen yourself. You were like, roar, and shing! Shing! And Siniestro was like, bang, bang bang! Oh no, please don't cut me! And-"

"Just to be precise, it was pretty impressive." Maria said from out of nowhere. "And pretty...breathtaking."

"Oh, uh, hey, Mom." Manny said, standing up and placing a hand on the back of his head with a nervous grin. While the police came and took Sergio into custody.

"Manny, is there something you would like to tell me?" She said in suspicion.

"Uh..." Manny muttered, until she raised an eyebrow. "Okay, okay. After me and Papi came home from fighting bad guys, my belt started going loco and then...when I woke up this morning, my eyes were still glowing and...well I guess you saw the rest." Instead of another series of stressful breathing, his mother just sighed.

"I had feared this day would come."

"What? You mean, you knew this would happen?"

"I'm afraid so, Mijo." Maria replied which practically surprised both of them. I guess that explains why she wasn't having another asthma attack. "Come, there is something I must show you."

Manny and Frida glanced at each other and followed Maria back into the school and into the library. She suddenly stopped in the History aisle and pulled out an old, dusty book that looked like it hadn't been read in years. Without a word, she gave the book to Manny.

Manny and Frida examined the book. Manny wiped off the dust, revealing the title embroidered in gold lettering. It read:

'La maldición del tigre'-The Curse of The Tiger

Manny flipped through the numerous pages, not bothering to read any of the text, until he found a page with pictures on it. In the picture, there was a replica belt, exactly the same as Manny's and wearing the belt was it's host.

The first, is a diagram of the host in human form, and then morphed into El Tigre. Manny turned to the next page, revealing a number of pictures where the host is in the form of El Tigre in a battle pose, but in the picture after that, the belt is glowing green the way Manny's did a few minutes ago. The host is starring at the belt, until he/she starts experiencing a series of different side effects such as glowing eyes, extreme hunger, supernatural speed, growling, high temperature body heat, and many others that may seem feral.

Nevertheless, these symptoms seemed to indicate the numerous characteristics of a tiger. The final picture of the host, not only dresses as El Tigre, but also running on all fours, with sharp teeth and attacking a random individual.

"Wait, Mom, are you saying that..." Manny said.

"Yes, Manny. El Espíritu del Tigre ha despertado. (The Spirit of the Tiger has awaken).

"Wait, so...I'm turning into an actual tiger?"

(To be continued)

* * *

><p><em><strong>Please leave a review. Any questions or concerns, PM me or as stated, leave it in a review. Will update as soon as possible. To all a goodnight.<strong>_


End file.
